Field Blog St. Helens School

   For my final school observation, I chose to observe at my old grade school. The teacher I happened to observe was Mrs. Dasch, the 5th grade teacher (aka my mom). I decided to observe at St. Helen because I wanted to further enhance my belief that I want to teach in a high school. However, I actually really enjoyed my observation at St. Helen's School. Maybe I enjoyed the observation more than my other observations because I was able to spend the entire day there. I was also able to proctor a spelling test and interact more with the students than I previously have.
   The first thing I noticed about Mrs. Dasch's 5th grade classroom were all the bright and colorful posters that had motivational sayings on them. I thought they were a very good addition to the classroom because they all had a unifying theme: hard work will help you succeed. This reminded me of our own class discussions and how important intrinsic motivation is. Another major thing I noticed was that Mrs. Dasch had the entire Monday schedule on the board for the students to see what subject they would be learning and at what time. Mrs. Dasch thoroughly explained what she expected her class to do throughout the entire day and kept her cool even when students would ask what the directions were a few minutes after she had just explained them. This was the only time of the day were I found myself getting a little upset with the class. Some of them were just so rude to the teacher and to other students who were called on to talk. Then, they would get upset when Mrs. Dasch would write their names on the whiteboard which meant they would have to stay in for recess.
   The most astonishing part of the day to me was the fact that 80% of the students had cell phones. When I was in grade school, no one had a cell phone! I did not get my first cell phone until I graduated 8th grade!  Mrs. Dasch had a zero cell phone policy and any student who was caught using their phone was subject to getting it taken for the rest of the day. I agreed with this because I do not think 5th graders need to be using their cellphones in class.

Field blog NDCL #3

I sat in on another one of Mr. Plumley's senior theology classes. This time the seniors were much more well behaved. Mr. Plumley started the class off by reviewing the previous material and asking very detailed questions. This forced the students to look back through their notebooks and answer the questions that he was asking. It also showed the students who did not take good notes, how important detailed note taking is. He also made sure to remind the students that the end of the quarter is rapidly approaching and said that the exam is cumulative. However, he told them that the exam would focus more heavily on the recent material than the material at the beginning of the school year. I thought that this was very generous of him. He also said that he is almost finished with the study guide for the exam. This showed me that he genuinely wants his students to do well on the exam because the exam is not for another two weeks. Most teachers that I've had gave out study guides a few days before the exam. Rarely would a teacher give us a study guide a whole week in advance.